In an ideal world, I would agree with this, but as OP mentioned, the worry is they’ll do something similar to what Google did with XMPP. Meta starts adding non-standard features and extensions to activity pub, grows their platform to the point where all other instances are forced to adopt the same standard, then they defederate to close off the ecosystem, making them the only option for many to stay connected. I feel like the only way to not fall into that trap is to either not bother copying whatever proprietary stuff they add right from the start or not federate with them to begin with. If there are alternatives I’m not considering, I would love to hear them.